Losing my son to suicide: Leslie Weirich
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- Опубліковано 15 лип 2024
- Leslie Weirich is a Suicide Prevention Specialist for the Oaklawn Community Mental Health Center and a keynote speaker who speaks about hope and resiliency wrapped around suicide prevention and mental health awareness. Leslie’s son, Austin, unfortunately died by suicide on September 10, 2016 during his junior year at Wabash College.
She realizes that suicide is stigmatized and her hope is that by sharing Austin's story she will get people talking and working towards a common goal of ending young adult suicide.
In this interview, we talk about:
-- Austin's life and mental health journey
- Topics related to suicide - the toxicitiy of perfection culture, people having trouble asking for help, unhealthy/toxic relationships and what Leslie's advice is on these topics in looking back at Austin's journey
- Advice to a parent finding out their child died by suicide today
- Advice to a parent in year 1 or 2 of grieving their child's suicide
Leslie's Socials:
Leslie's Website: leslieshope.org/
Leslie's LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/feed/?trk=se...
Leslie's Email: leslie@leslieshope.org
Grateful Living Info:
UA-cam: / @gratefulliving3439
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/3Hn4ttt...
Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
My Instagram: aroy81547?...
Patreon: / gratefulliving4
Medium: / gratefulliving4
Approximate Time Stamps:
0:00 Intro
1:23 Background on her son Austin Weirich
7:16 Leslie leaving her job to become a suicide prevention specialist
10:03 Sources of Strength Program
12:18 Importance of mentor
15:00 Can you speak about Austin’s mental health journey?
23:46 Did Austin have trouble asking for help?
31:32 What would your recommendation be for people in unhealthy relationships?
36:30 Did Austin verbally talk about suicide prior to his death?
43:03 Any advice you would give to the parent finding out their child died by suicide today?
56:08 Advice for parent in year 0,1 or 2 or grief?
1:08:41 How have you handled your daughter’s grief process?
1:13:10 sources of strengths
1:23:23 Austin positive memory - Розваги
![World Mental Health Day 2023 [Mental health is a universal human right] Our Minds Our Rights](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/SgrI1mkcTKQ/mqdefault.jpg)
I feel really sorry for Leslie having lost her son to suicide, I also really appreciate the fact that she so actively and devotedly spend her time in regards to educating people about the possible causes and factors of depression and suicide. What I find deeply saddening however, is the fact that her ability to approach the issues holistically and more inquisitively is lacking severely. I totally agree with most of the this she said - suicide might be the outcome of an impulse caused by a lethal combination of strong emotion and thought of taking your own life that follows it immediately or the inability or lack of will to express your emotions and dark thoughts causes stress to the body to such a profound extent that someone might see suicide as the only form of escape. I totally disagree that people are born perfectionist - perfectionism is sign that someone has been taught that their value is only based on their performance or ability to execute thing up to certain level, and unfortunately in most cases is the parents or primary care givers that are guilty of that. School only amplifies this vicious process as you're not only judged by your performance but also you're given grades for it and to make things worse you are surrounded by your class mates that must compete with you - not to mention maintaining your position in the 'social ladder' or having to present yourself in a certain way. People need to start taking into account that many suicides are caused mainly by the failure of education system and parent combined - which are the things that should be there to make young people blossom effortlessly into adulthood yet manage to mess it up it so badly.
Excellent point n of course where not saying that was the case here but clearly it is the case at times but even those times nobody would be cruel enough to actually say that n how would we really even know. Yet we know instinctively that it must be true sometimes so how do we raise awareness about this?
Really appreciate her brutal honesty and how most people would react to seeing her at a store. Sad but true.
The ball being shoved under water is a fantastic example for grief
Thank you sharing Leslie. You are doing great work for suicide prevention in telling your story and advocating. I know we need to teach our youth more protective coping strategies. You have made such great points about building inner strength. There are so many pressures for young people. Perfectionism is incredibly damaging.
Totally agree. Her work in destigmatizing mental health is amazing and changing lives 🙌🏽
@@gratefulliving3439kk😊😊kk😊😊l😊llk😊
@@gratefulliving3439I'm not sure we're actually destigmatizing mental health as this was a seemingly normal young man with a loving family n friends who was in college n on the football team. Sad that be took his life over couple of what most would consider minor setbacks especially in the scheme of things as this is often the case. Unfortunately this type of stuff is very difficult to detect n even helping young people to be aware will likely only go so far. When we stop to take the time to chat or check on a neighbor with schizophrenia or the less physically attractive homeless person on the street who is battling a truly debilitating mental illness who is dying a much slower death. Not necessarily to give them money but just not shun them or volunteer in some way then we will be finally fighting stigma. That person probably has no parents in their lives or certainly ones they are connected with or who will tell their story. This woman is doing her part but it is the tip of the iceberg n the easier part of the mental health issue. So much in fact that up until just recently this wasn't even considered mental health and I'm not sure it should be. People are sad n despondent at times when things don't go as they wanted n will some times have difficulty self regulating as she said but that is a temperament, strength n character issue more than mental health. That is not to take away from the sadness but Everytime we group these things together it takes from those who have truly debilitating mental health issues that won't easily be hellped.
I'm so sorry for your loss
This was so helpful .today is the day I found my daughter Donna in the bath dead 8 weeks ago at 10.50 am ❤❤ so I'm as raw as can be in my hell 😢😢 .I haven't been out in 8weeks only to the hospital .thank you ❤
Sorry to hear that :(. sending you love ❤
So sorry for your loss Leslie💔I lost my dear son to suicide 2 years ago. He was so much like Austin - a very intelligent kid, over achieving and a very kind person. The circumstances were also same - a impulsive decision over a break up💔😢 we are broken forever and will never be able to recover from this tragic loss 💔
So sorry for your loss💔
@@gratefulliving3439 thank you 🙏 as an immigrant family we never thought we would be facing this tragedy 😢
@@SRMthy 😢😢 As part of an immigrant family myself, I can feel your pain, very tough to hear, stay strong and keep your son's spirit alive ❤
SO sorry Leslie.... May your son rest in peace
What are ally nice lady ❤❤ thank you Leslie, I have a bad day today 😢😢
God love you, Leslie.
🙏🏽🙏🏽
my life has been full of grief being in special education and having a learning disability.
sorry to hear that, sending love ❤
What a lesson! People this is so important, please listen carefully and works that with your children.
The world wants to tell us failure is not allowed and that is not true, failure is what makes us want to improve, no one comes ready and perfect in this world and we are not even dying being perfect, BUT we can do better for things that bother ourselves and accept the good and the bad.
Istead of focusing in everything we dont have in this world, focus in the little important great things we do have and living is gonna be lighter believe me.
Yes!
Yes we all may need someone to talk to but it doesn't always need to be a therapist and it shouldn't necessarily be for years or a lifetime as it creates dependency in many. Im glad her daughter has someone they think is great but of course that's not usually the case n experts often say it's unethical for a therapist to treat you indefinitely. Its not actually like a dentist but I can appreciate why she thinks it should be. I'm not sure that she sees the connection with ber very astute point about how we as a culture suck at grief and the ever increasing push to outsource our grief n stress n even day to day problems to a paid professional. People used to have close family n friends for this n only severe n acute problem were what drove people to see a professional.
She mentions that he was a perfectionist n that she recommends that kids fail early and fail well n it's hard not to see the connection between the trophy generation n the coddling of our kids as part of the problem. Of course not the only part n of course not necessarily the problem in this young man's case. Very sorry for their loss and glad she is doing what she can to help. Her son would be proud im sure. Each parent n survivor who speake has a different story n they each bring out various things that perhaps we should be aware of n focus more on. Their is no one size fits all cure n as . much as she n others might not want to hear this,all the talk about mental health has its own downside for many. Abigail Sherer has great book n video about this. Live by the seordt, die by the sword perhaps. I'm curious if this young man had siblings.
Important interview.
Totally agree, thank you for the comment!
This is why I hate seeing students be super successful in so many things in school. Because then when things go bad - with anything - with women, with grades, with sports, then life is not perfect. So life is not good. And suicide becomes a serious option. In my life, I struggled with school. I worked hard and still almost was suspended because of grades. I was dumped by men multiple times. And I come from a dysfunctional family. And I am still here. Because failure is accepted.
With all due respect,it doesn't sound like he bad a panic attack that night. He was upset n she explained it as well as possible. A panic attack is an entirely different thing.
Oh well...This is what happens when parents claim their children are out for attention. This is the best punishment for parents. Because all parents do is claim that we are out for attention. I can give a list on why people dont open up about suicide and they just go and do it.
1: Parents and the law usually think of them as attention seekers
2: Parents and the law deem them as mentally ill
3: People who are suicidal have a huge chance of being placed in a psych ward
These reasons are good reasons NOT to open up about anything. I encourage people not to open up because it will be the biggest mistake of their lives which is why I will never open up and it makes me want to say serves you all right for how you all treat suicidal people.
@Aegis I hope you can find someone to talk to and feel comfortable with. This talk was very good. I realize there are so many stressors in this world. I don't believe there was any point of this talk by this speaker talking about their children being out for attention. I think she is trying to get people be more aware of helping others. I wish you all the best. I believe therapists are getting better at not putting people in psyche wards. I can understand though how scary that can be.
@@ww9192 Yeah but you dont understand. Pretty much every parent claims its an attention faze of some sort. I will never open up to anyone again. Thats why I have no sympathy when this stuff happens.
@@ageis3250 you are so immature grow up. These individual parents didn’t think it was attention seeking. Maybe some people do but their children didn’t kill themselves. The people who took it serious and tried to help their kids they’re still gone, so what do you mean? Why don’t you blame the actual attention seekers instead of the parents who didn’t take their kids serious? people have a hard time taking anyone serious when we have TikTok and literally every kid on there like you is attention seeking. So why don’t you do that blame the actual attention seekers and not the parents who lost their children. The parents who actually do take their kids serious… I would say most normal parents would take it serious if their kids said hey I want to commit suicide dude. And the parents that don’t well those aren’t normal people. Those are not the majority we have adults that have mental issues issues as well That shouldn’t have kids.
Wow, blame social media, big surprise there. I grew up way before social media and I said the same things.
Suicide is way more complicated then this.
Yes "committed" is not a good word. Take one's life is better. Interesting history lesson there.
Suicide is a selfish act imagine all those poor people around the world who want to live and cannot afford to eat and have no drinking water
I'm not going to say you're a hater as you are free to have your opinion. I don't quite see it that way even for people who have less of a reason in most people's opinion anyway. All people take things for granted of course like food n water etc but it's not to say that here in the USA anyway for most people that we do have so many blessings that we forget about.
Really not ally 😮
Why did he need to go to a therapist just bc be was heartbroken over a high school girlfriend breaking up with hjm. How soon was this recommended? Why did he need kr choose to go for years while in college. This can have the opposite effect n creates a sense of dependence. This is not good and worse for.men. Also be very careful with that "chemical imbance" misinformation. Please.